Seven Summits

Seven Summits

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

Following Everest, Rebecca set herself a further challenge and climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, the ‘Seven Summits’ – again, a ‘first’ for a British woman. The best known of the Seven Summits is, naturally, Everest and a talk on the Seven Summits includes all the excitement and drama, as well as the lessons learnt, on the highest mountain in the world (see Everest above). But it also includes the climbing of six other peaks, each uniquely it’s own – different in topography and positioned in countries of vastly different landscapes and culture. The story is as much about the journey to the peaks as it is about climbing the peaks themselves, and leads the audience from the African savannah, to the rainforest and stone-aged tribes people of West Papua, to the icy wastelands of Antarctica.

Rebecca’s philosophy on as well as off the mountain is one of continuous learning, always looking beyond one summit to the next. The mountains, she observes, strip away any superficialities, revealing that which matters: namely head, heart, and values. There is no greater teacher. And undoubtedly, lessons learned in extreme and often-dangerous conditions are equally pertinent in the increasingly challenging environment of the workplace.